Gender, equity and human rights

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11 OCTOBER 2017 – WHO joins individuals, communities and organizations worldwide in marking this year’s International Day of the Girl Child. This event commemorates the importance of gender equality and human rights for the well-being and health of girls and young women everywhere. It recognizes that empowering girls to achieve their full potential is also essential for their families and for their societies.

26 SEPTEMBER 2017 – Today is World Contraception Day. Recognition that human rights are of critical importance in the design and provision of contraceptive services and programmes is growing. How healthcare providers and facility managers ensure that human rights aspects are integrated into services is a challenge with many dimensions including the right of access to high-quality contraceptive services, autonomy and a choice of methods as well as the respectful provision of care.

18 SEPTEMBER 2017 – The WHO publication “State of Inequality: Childhood Immunization” was awarded the first prize in the Digital and online resources category at the British Medical Association’s (BMA) Medical Book Awards 2017.

Breakthrough for men’s health: WHO and experts kick off development of strategy and report

Åsa Nihlen

8 SEPTEMBER 2017 – For the first time, WHO is undertaking a strategy entirely focused on the health and well-being of men and boys. A group of experts from a range of fields and disciplines related to men’s health came together on 5 September 2017 at UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark, to launch the development of the strategy for the WHO European Region.

Summary: Upcoming Women on the Move report

6 SEPTEMBER 2017 – A global paradox is emerging in which care workers - who are largely female migrants - make a considerable contribution to global public health, but are exposed to health risks and have their rights violated themselves, while enjoying few protections. An upcoming report lays out next steps for consideration on migration, care work and health that echo the principles and priorities laid out in WHA Resolution 70.15 on migration and health.

10 AUGUST 2017 – Environmental health risks especially affect women and children, because women are more vulnerable socially. For an example, household air pollution from dirty fuels and inefficient cook stoves caused around 4 million premature deaths in 2012. This WHO Bulletin article addresses how the Sustainable Development Goals can be used to reduce environmental health risks and improve transport, housing, urban design and energy provision.

21 JULY 2017 – While many countries have improved the overall health of their populations, national averages don’t tell the whole story, and groups of people can miss out on health services for a variety of reasons. WHO has developed a set of resources to monitor health inequalities – one of which, the Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT), was recently tested in Indonesia, allowing the country to analyse and interpret inequalities in health.

17 JULY 2017 - Worldwide, 12.9 million infants, nearly 1 in 10, did not receive any vaccinations in 2016, according to new estimates from WHO and UNICEF. These infants missed the first dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP)-containing vaccine, putting them at serious risk. Additionally, an estimated 6.6 million infants who did receive their first dose of DTP-containing vaccine did not complete the full, three dose DTP immunization series (DTP3) in 2016.

5 JULY 2017 – The Innov8 Facilitator’s Manual is designed for persons conducting the capacity-building workshops of applications of the Innov8 approach for reviewing national health programmes to leave no one behind. Innov8 is an 8-step review process that supports programmes to be more equity-oriented, rights-based, gender-responsive and to address social determinants in order to contribute to the progressive realization of universal health coverage and the right to health. The Manual – the partnering publication to the Innov8 Technical Handbook – provides an introduction to the facilitation of a generic Innov8 review process entailing three workshops – sensitization, review and redesign – to aid and support the adaptation process.

Facts and features

In this photo story, see how making gender, equity and human rights everyone’s responsibility is reshaping the way health policies and programmes are developed and implemented to benefit women, men, girls and boys across the Western Pacific Region.